LATTER. That must be so, Ronny. KEITH. No, John; not a bit of it! LATTER. You don't think! KEITH. Good Gad, who wants to think after dinner! DOT. Come on! Let's play pool. [She turns at the billiard-room door.] Look here! Rehearsal to-morrow is directly after breakfast; from "Eccles enters breathless" to the end. MABEL. Whatever made you choose "Caste," DOT? You know it's awfully difficult. DOT. Because it's the only play that's not too advanced. [The girls all go into the billiard-room.] LADY CHESHIRE. Where's Bill, Ronny? KEITH. [With a grimace] I rather think Sir William and he are in Committee of Supply--Mem-Sahib. LADY CHESHIRE. Oh! She looks uneasily at the dining-room; then follows the girls out. LATTER. [In the tone of one resuming an argument] There can't be two opinions about it, Ronny. Young Dunning's refusal is simply indefensible. KEITH. I don't agree a bit, John. LATTER. Of course, if you won't listen. KEITH. [Clipping a cigar] Draw it mild, my dear chap. We've had the whole thing over twice at least. LATTER. My point is this---- KEITH. [Regarding LATTER quizzically with his halfclosed eyes] I know--I know--but the point is, how far your point is simply professional. LATTER. If a man wrongs a woman, he ought to right her again. There's no answer to that. KEITH. It all depends. LATTER. That's rank opportunism. KEITH. Rats! Look here--Oh! hang it, John, one can't argue this out with a parson. LATTER. [Frigidly] Why not? HAROLD. [Who has entered from the dining-room] Pull devil, pull baker! KEITH. Shut up, Harold! LATTER. "To play the game" is the religion even of the Army. KEITH. Exactly, but what is the game? LATTER. What else can it be in this case? KEITH. You're too puritanical, young John. You can't help it--line of country laid down for you. All drag-huntin'! What! LATTER. [With concentration] Look here! HAROLD. [Imitating the action of a man pulling at a horse's head] 'Come hup, I say, you hugly beast!' KEITH. [To LATTER] You're not going to draw me, old chap. You don't see where you'd land us all. [He smokes calmly] LATTER. How do you imagine vice takes its rise? From precisely this sort of thing of young Dunning's. KEITH. From human nature, I should have thought, John. I admit that I don't like a fellow's leavin' a girl in the lurch; but I don't see the use in drawin' hard and fast rules. You only have to break 'em. Sir William and you would just tie Dunning and the girl up together, willy-nilly, to save appearances, and ten to one but there'll be the deuce to pay in a year's time. You can take a horse to the water, you can't make him drink. LATTER. I entirely and absolutely disagree with you. HAROLD. Good old John! LATTER. At all events we know where your principles take you. KEITH. [Rather dangerously] Where, please? [HAROLD turns up his eyes, and points downwards] Dry up, Harold!